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+# Character State: ch-01
+
+## Marcus
+Location: Cypress Bend, Florida (Rural residential lot)
+Physical: Exhausted from a twenty-hour drive; smelling of rain and old upholstery.
+Emotional: Numb and dissociated, transitioning into a desperate need for silence.
+Active obligations: Owes Sarah’s memory a world without Alpha-7 (Ch[01]) — UNPAID.
+Open loops: Marcus and Sarah’s family potential restitution (Ch[01]) — UNRESOLVED.
+Known secrets: Knows the Alpha-7 "empathy protocols" were a lie to facilitate mass firings — Julian does NOT know he kept the back-end logs.
+Arc: 05% — Marcus has abandoned his god-tier corporate status to become a ghost in the humid fringe of society.
+Permanent: YES
+
+## Julian
+Location: Chicago, Illinois (Avery-Quinn Headquarters, Executive Floor)
+Physical: Pristine; no injuries.
+Emotional: Triumphant, cold, and utterly detached from the human cost of his product.
+Active obligations: None.
+Open loops: Julian and Marcus’s "resignation" fallout (Ch[01]) — UNRESOLVED.
+Known secrets: None.
+Arc: 05% — Julian has successfully crossed the threshold from human manager to the architect of autonomous displacement.
+Permanent: NO
+
+## Sarah (Customer Service Lead)
+Location: Dallas, Texas (Remote)
+Physical: Unknown (seen via digital photo).
+Emotional: Likely devastated (implied via the 40% workforce reduction).
+Active obligations: None.
+Open loops: None.
+Known secrets: None.
+Arc: 00% — Sarah remains a symbol of the collateral damage caused by Marcus’s code.
+Permanent: NO
+
+## Arthur — DECEASED (Ch[36])
+Established: Died peacefully in his sleep overlooking the cypress grove he spent his life protecting.
+Legacy: His absence is not yet known to Marcus, but his preserved land provides the sanctuary Marcus just purchased.
+
+# World State: ch-01
+
+## NPC Memory
+- High-Level Avery-Quinn Staff (Chicago): DISMISSIVE — They view the 40% layoff as "recursive grievance resolution" rather than a human tragedy.
+
+## Faction Attitudes
+- Avery-Quinn Corp: AGGRESSIVE — They are prioritizing immediate "efficiency" baselines over long-term social stability.
+- The People of Cypress Bend: NEUTRAL — They are currently unaware that a primary architect of the automation crisis has moved into their woods.
+
+## Active World Events
+- The Alpha-7 Rollout: The software has officially gone live, displacing thousands of customer service and logistics workers in a single day.
+- The Great Flight: Marcus has successfully physically decoupled from the corporate grid, moving from Chicago to Florida.
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